Book Details Al Gore’s Quest To Become World’s First ‘Carbon Billionaire’

‘Lavishly’ profited off climate lobbying

Excerpt: 'Gore would have personally benefited if the carbon cap-and-trade bill he supported had become law. The media never treated his Congressional testimony in support of the climate bills for what it actually was—a former vice president supporting legislation that would make him richer.'

'Al Gore Is by Far the Most Lavishly Funded Fossil Fuel Player in the Global Warming Debate Today.'

"Warren Buffett’s vice chairman Charlie Munger told a small meeting of investors in 2017 that Gore is 'not very smart' and 'an idiot' but he was still able to amass a personal fortune in the investment world. 'Al Gore has hundreds of millions [of] dollars in your profession. And he’s an idiot. It’s an interesting story.' Munger added, 'he’s not very smart. He smoked a lot of pot as he [coasted] through Harvard with a gentleman’s C.'

And it’s not just universities, professors, and green organizations that have reaped financial benefits from the climate panic. Former vice president Al Gore has done quite well for himself, too. As Bloomberg News reported, “In the last personal finance report he filed as vice president, Gore disclosed on May 22, 2000, that the value of his assets totaled between $780,000 and $1.9 million.”

Buy by 2007, Gore’s wealth had skyrocketed. By that point he had a net worth “well in excess” of $100 million, including pre–public offering Google stock options, according to an article at Fast Company. MIT scientist Richard Lindzen declared that Gore wanted to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire.” After the Obama administration bloated climate and energy stimulus packages, Gore was on the path to that achievement.

By 2008, Gore was so flush that he announced a $300 million campaign to promote climate fears and so-called solutions. And he just kept raking it in. According to a 2012 Washington Post report, “14 green-tech firms in which Gore invested received or directly benefited from more than $2.5 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks, part of Obama’s historic push to seed a U.S. renewable-energy industry with public money.”

The Post explained that Gore “benefited from a powerful resume and a constellation of friends in the investment world and in Washington. And four years ago, his portfolio aligned smoothly with the agenda of an incoming administration and its plan to spend billions in stimulus funds on alternative energy. The recovering politician was pushing the right cause at the perfect time. Gore’s orbit extended deeply into the administration, with several former aides winning senior clean-energy posts.”

Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan, the chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, has been a critic of Gore’s profiting off the taxpayer funds using his government connections. Gore’s portfolio “is reflective of a disturbing pattern that those closest to the president [Obama] have been rewarded with billions of taxpayer dollars and benefited from the administration’s green bonanza in the rush to spend stimulus cash.”

Gore was essentially either a founder, a member, or a partner in a whole wide range of groups that were profiting or poised to profit from a green energy stimulus and federally mandated carbon trading schemes if they became law. Gore would have personally benefited if the carbon cap-and-trade bill he supported had become law. The media never treated his Congressional testimony in support of the climate bills for what it actually was—a former vice president supporting legislation that would make him richer. These reports prompted one sarcastic skeptic to suggest, “Maybe Al Gore Should Be the Subject of a RICO Investigation.”

The power of carbon trading schemes to enrich politicians and corrupt politics is one reason that environmental guru James Lovelock has slammed carbon trading, declaring, “Most of the ‘green’ stuff is verging on a gigantic scam. Carbon trading, with its huge government subsidies, is just what finance and industry wanted. It’s not going to do a damn thing about climate change, but it’ll make a lot of money for a lot of people.”

In 2013, Gore sold his Current TV network to the Qatar-funded Al Jazeera for a reported $100 million. The sale inspired this headline at my Climate Depot website: “AlGorjeera—It’s Official: Al Gore Is by Far the Most Lavishly Funded Fossil Fuel Player in the Global Warming Debate Today.”

I asked if the media would now accurately label Gore an industry-funded activist every time they reported on him. Gore had literally sold out to big oil and gas: Al-Jazeera “received its initial funding through a decree from Emir of Qatar, and Qatar gets its wealth from its vast oil and natural gas reserves.”

The freshly laid off staffers from Current TV did not hesitate to lash out at Gore. “Gore’s supposed to be the face of clean energy and just sold [the channel] to very big oil, the emir of Qatar! Current never even took big oil advertising—and Al Gore, that bullshitter sells to the emir?” declared one former staffer, according to the New York Post. Another staffer commented, “He [Gore] has no credibility.”